books

120 Embroidery Stitches

120 Embroidery Stitches is a how-to guide for hand embroidery in ebook format. It's made up of eight chapters and stitches range from the basic to the unusual. There are eight accompanying samplers to help master stitches from each chapter. The book and sampler patterns are available online and you can read more about the book here.

"Congratulations on a beautiful, handy, clear, comprehensive and inspiring guide! I will refer to this over and over. I can take it with me (the PDF is clear and small) and the diagrams are so easy to decipher. I also like the fact that you put a big, clear photo of the samplers at the beginning of each section. Makes me reach for my needle and thread - with confidence! Thanks for creating this excellent reference." - Cindy, Facebook/email

"Yay! So happy to finally have all the stitch instructions on my phone. This guide includes a few stitches that I couldn't find in any of my stitch encyclopaedias (Palestrina stitch comes to mind) and I wasn't able to understand online. Surprisingly, I realised that I have been doing my stem stitch wrong all this time, when I looked at the picture and instructions in this guide; no wonder it always turned out iffy. So, now I can have a project with me everywhere I go, and have my pdf instructions and my pdf stitch guide on my phone. No more lugging a book around to refer to! Absolutely love the convenience of this PDF book." - Tiffany, Etsy

embroidered home

Embroidered Home (Kyle Books, UK) contains more than 60 projects to embroider and sew for your home. It includes a how-to stitch directory, easy-to-follow instructions and an introductory section on embroidery basics. The book is split up into projects to suit different home decorating styles – coastal, vintage, bold Scandi-inspired, modern country, contemporary, floral and festive for seasonal decorating – that are suitable for embroiderers and sewists of all skill levels. It's available from most bookstores and online, including Amazon (US, UK and others). Embroidered Home is also available in Finnish under the title Kirjottu kissa ja muita kodin kirjontatöitä (Makela, Finland).

"Full of fresh, modern designs worked with simple stitches and appealing colours, it offers a fabulous collection of ideas for embellishing a variety of homewares ... None of the designs are overly complex and they all have a lovely, clean spare vibe that is very contemporary and appealing." - Inspirations magazine, Australia

"I rather like her pared back, deceptively simple surface embroidery designs. There is nothing in this book which could be described as fussy ... This book’s strength is the quality and simplicity of Kelly’s designs. I also like that she uses such a variety of stitches." - Erica Marsden, Auckland Embroiderer's Guild

"Oh Kelly, I love this book so! I just moved across the country from Texas to New York and have been trying hard to get my sewing room unpacked and back up and running. This book is just what I needed for inspiration and motivation! I love Kelly's designs, they're so fresh and have just the right mix of simple and sophisticated, not fussy. As usual, very good instructions and the photos are beautiful." - Yummy, Amazon

Read an excerpt from Inspirations magazine's review of Embroidered Home here.

Stitch It Yourself

Stitch it Yourself by Petra Harms (Droemer Knaur, Germany) is a collection of hand embroidery projects by 14 designers from around the world. I contributed two projects: a whale notebook cover and some world traveller luggage tags. There are also fish, cats, ice cream, softies, sushi, tea cups, pouches, festive hoop art and more. The designs range from super easy to a little more advanced, but nothing overly complicated, and the layout is fresh and inspiring. It's in German, but most of the projects can be figured out without reading the instructions.